Intangible Gift Ideas

bbg membership

Omg, I must be tired or something because at first glance I thought the title read "Inflatable Gift Ideas" :shock:

Brooklyn Botanical Gardens - great idea.

Ha ha! Burn! Jesus, I'm of one mind today. Sorry 'bout that.

For the service-minded friend, how about a kiva.org gift certificate?

If you want Brooklyn, BAM offers great gifts. I have done yoga class packages for friends, museum memberships, Met/Lincoln Center packages.

UrbanCowgirl wrote: http://www.nudo-italia.com/. My boyfriend loved it.

This Nudo thing is really cool. Would be a great gift... I only wish the exchange rate wasn't so horrible. $100 us is tough.

If you're doing something like a museum or zoo membership for a single person it would be cool to do a dual (or whatever allows them to take someone else) level membership, funds permitting. Unless the person really likes some alone time, but I always like being able to take someone to a museum or zoo with me.

Mamacita wrote: You can donate to charitable fund in the name of the person?

Yeah, I was going to mention that These guys are awesome - I do it for my family every xmas. Give a goat, give a llama, give a water buffalo.

http://www.heifer.org/

Gave my friends tickets to Christmas Spectacular for their whole family, they loved it beyond belief!

Yeah, tickets to shows are fun, too.

Not trying to hijack this thread to push Heifer, but growing up near the head offices, I was exposed to it a lot growing up and think it's great. I also have known people who work there in the past and they confirmed some things about the place, like that they have few paid employees and those employees are not paid massive salaries, and that the organization tends to use the money for it's purpose more than on fundraising compared to similar orgs.

I just read that they do wedding registries. If the bf and I ever get married, I think we'll be likely to say no gifts, but this might be offered for folks who really want to do something. How cool would it be to give/get chicks and goats!

From wikipedia:
Today, rather than shipping animals overseas, the organization purchases them in the country they are destined for. This puts money into the local economy, reduces transportation costs and promotes better health for the animals because they are already accustomed to the local climate, food and diseases.

Heifer International works to ensure that the gift of each animal will eventually help an entire community to become self-sustaining. Animals such as goats, water buffalo and camels are "seven M" animals: they provide meat, milk, muscle, manure, money, materials and motivation. Once its immediate needs have been met, a family is free to sell any excess at market. Heifer International provides a breeding animal along with the gift animal so that it can produce offspring. Participating families are required to "pass on the gift", that is: they must give at least one of the female offspring to a neighbor who has undergone Heifer's training. In time, that neighbor will pass along one of the offspring of its animal, and so on.

Heifer International is involved in several other progressive global initiatives which provide people with clean water, access to education and emergency housing.